THE UK lags behind Europe in harnessing renewable energy sources and is destined to miss forthcoming targets by wide margins, it has been warned.

Arguing that Britain has the great-est potential for generating renewable energy of any country in Europe, the Commons environmental audit committee described as "tiny" the 3pc of energy currently derived from solar, hydro-electric, wind and wave power.

The MPs forecast that the Govern-ment-set target of 5pc of electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2003 is certain to be missed, possibly by as much as 2pc.

And they add that without regional targets, which shift the emphasis to the areas most capable of producing renewables like Wales, that Britain is unlikely to achieve much more than half the 10pc target set for 2010.

The Department of Trade and Industry has calculated that Wales has the potential to contribute the greatest share to the UK target of 10pc, at around a tenth.

But MPs say that there is no "con-sistent basis" for the assessments.

The committee warned ministers against allowing themselves to "drift" into a position in which nuclear power appears to be the only alternative to generating electricity from dwindling fossil-fuel reserves.

Committee member Jon Owen Jones, MP for Cardiff Central, said ambitious targets would not be met unless there was a change in the planning laws to prevent delays in granting permission for wind farms, as has been the case in Wales.

Mr Jones said, "If we are not prepared to go down that road then we have to accept that nuclear power is the only other option.

"It seems that everyone agrees that renewables are a great idea in principle but are not prepared to put policies into practice."